Live high on the hog again with Bacon Bacon reopening

Published 6:02 pm, Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Opening chef Traci Des Jardins appeared at a Rubicon reunion in Pebble Beach.

Opening chef Traci Des Jardins appeared at a Rubicon reunion in Pebble Beach.

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Live high on the hog again with Bacon Bacon reopening

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Call it a porcine resurrection. Bacon Bacon is back.

The little cafe (205A Frederick St.), tucked away on an unassuming block on the border of Haight-Ashbury and Cole Valley, made national headlines last year when it was shut down after neighbors complained about bacon fumes drifting into their homes.

Even the recurring "Weekend Update" segment of "Saturday Night Live" picked up the story, with Amy Poehler wondering aloud how exactly a concerned citizen might tell a policeman about an overwhelming swine scent.

Bacon Bacon owner Jim Angelussays he has made his peace with the neighbors who complained, and much to the delight of the dozens of supporters who crowded last summer's planning commission meeting (not to mention the thousands who signed his petition), he will reopen his meat-filled cafe Saturday. Normal breakfast and lunch hours will commence Monday.

The biggest changes, visually, are 13 seats and one red vintage coin-operated pig kiddie ride. Previously, the Bacon Bacon cafe consisted only of a walk-up counter; now, a handful of small tables and a fresh design (courtesy of Penelope Hartwell Designs) allow for a fuller menu.

The cafe will feature all the bacon dishes sold at the popular Bacon Bacon truck: the burger, the LGBT (Little Gems, bacon, tomato), and the Bouquet (five strips of bacon with a drizzle of maple syrup). New to the cafe will be grab-and-go options and a bacon "cronut" made with maple bacon glaze and candied bacon. "It's a little over the top," Angelus concedes.

For the everyday customers - and to even out the eternal balancing act between neighborhood cafe and novelty-loving customers seeking bacon everything - there will also be bacon-free options such as yogurt, granola, scones and, of course, coffee.

Which brings us to the under-the-radar changes: The cafe no longer doubles as the commissary kitchen for the Bacon Bacon truck operations. The two trucks are now anchored at Drake in SoMa, meaning they won't be parked in the area.

And for the porky perfume that once permeated the foggy air, Angelus has installed a new exhaust system with a Molitron unit. Though it sounds like something out of "The Jetsons," the Molitron is actually a little gadget that cleans and deodorizes the air as it moves through the exhaust system and out through the new fan on the roof.

On a recent weekday, Angelus was in his still-unopened cafe in the early morning hours. Paper covered the windows, and the stoves had yet to be fired up. His two daughters, ages 2 and 4, were running around the room, vying for a ride on the red pig. Angelus smiled and got a little mushy.

"It's why I started this whole thing. Restaurant hours are brutal," he said, reflecting on his former career working in top San Francisco restaurants. "It just wasn't the lifestyle I was looking for, being at restaurants all day. So I thought, 'How can I be in the food business and still do what I love?' "

As with most things, it turns out the answer was bacon.

Star systems: Rubicon, one of the most storied restaurants in recent San Francisco history, was reborn for a night last weekend at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival.

Rubicon closed in 2008. It is now home to Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern.

Something's fishy: State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima (Los Angeles County), recently introduced SB1138, which would make it illegal for restaurateurs - or anyone - to knowingly sell mislabeled fish in California. The bill unanimously sailed through the Senate Health Committee last week and, if all goes to plan in the next several weeks, could become law in 2015.

A major spark for the movement for better seafood labeling and traceability is last year's nationwide investigation from the nonprofit environmental group Oceana, which had DNA tests done for fish sold in restaurants and grocery stores.

The report found that 33 percent of the seafood was mislabeled. And for all of our emphasis on ingredients in the Bay Area, Northern California was even worse than the national average, at 38 percent.

Restaurants were particularly egregious. Oceana found that 58 percent of restaurants visited in Northern California sold mislabeled fish.

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